UE Creation
UE Homepage | Rules Page | Terms Page | New Player Info Basic information on the nature of Creation, its cosmology and geograhy. =Map of Creation= This map is actually a campagin map from one of my White Wolf's Exalted games but shows the basic layout of the lands of Creation. =First off Creation is NOT EARTH= First and most importantly Creation is not Earth! Unlike the Gaia of the Core Anima setting Creation is not now nor has it ever or will it ever be Earth as we know it. It is not arranged by nor functions according to the laws of phycis, astronomy and other natural laws as they function in the real world. To be honest some of the questions raised by its nature don't have any really good answers so don't sweet it. =Pre-history= Creation was created by immensly powerful beings know as the Makers. The Makers where the most powerful examples of the type of beings known as Primordials. The Primordials had formed themselves out of the raw stuff of unlimted possibility and chaos by the shear desire to do so and enjoyed almost unlimited power within the stuff of Pure Chaos. The defining characterisitc of the Primordials was the acceptance of limitations on their own potential and natures, that which humans would consider identity. By defining what they where and where not the Primordials gained great power and forever defined all other things within the Chaos as either me or not me. The problem with living within unlimited and undefferentiated possiblities is it including a fair number of things which you do not enjoy. The Primordials where not the only type of being present within the stuff of raw Chaos and thes other beings where not fond of the Primordials. For in the act of defining what was a part of each Primoridal it had not only limited its self but also all the others. Previously each of the beings had freely altered their natures without limit as the whim took them. The birth of the Primordials had forced upon them the unalterable and constant trait of being "not me". The only way to be free of this hated limitation was the destruction of the Primordials. Unfortionatly for the Unformed, the Primordials had become much more powerful than their attackers and where able to destory them with a thought. Unfortionatly for the Primordials an endless number of the Unformed where constantly being birthed and destroyed from the raw stuff of Chaos. The very concept of being dead was only a single state of being which the Unformed freely flowed and would often decide that they where not infact detroyed and renew their attacks. Eventually the one of the soon to be Makers tired of the endless attacks and annoyances of the less savory elements of Pure Chaos. Considering the problem he/she/it got the bright idea of creating an area of staticly defined realtiy in which he/she/it would not have to put up with constant shit and would be able to indulge its personnal intrestes. This first Maker approached several other beings of a similar nature with the concept and they liked it. They agreed to turn their power towards its creation and became the Makers of Creation. It might or might not have been the intent of the originator of the concept of Creation but as some point the Makers decided that Creation would serve as the pieces and board of a game for the amusement of the Makers. The Great Game was to have two parts, an interface on which the game would be played and observed(The Games of Divinity at the center of Yu-shan) and a grand gameboard which would effect and be affected by the events taking place upon the Games of Divinity (Creation it's self). This gameboard would also serve as a playground in which the Makers might amuse themselves. And to this ends the Makers turned their might and Creation was born (maybe). =Try and Try Again!= Creation as it currently exists is not the first form drawn for the Chaos by the Makers. Several versions of Creation where made. Each of which would prove to have some hidden flaw and the Makers would sweep aside what was and begin again, keeping those aspects which pleased them. Eventually the current version of Creation was arrived at, but it should be noted that the Makers where far from the most organized, united or consistance world builders. Each Maker is a being of distributed consiousness made up of multiple componant souls, all of which act indepenantly to one degree or another. While they all agreed on the basic idea of making a static reality they all had multiple independant agendas that often conflicted. (Hell sometimes they disagreed with themselves) As beings definded by their limitations, each Maker also had aspects of behavior, though and nature which it simply could not ignore or override. All of which is reflected to varying degrees in the processes used to make Creation. The current Creation contains "remenants" of previous versions that either got lost in the shuffle, where keep by indvidual Makers, where partially or fully created and then abandoned, or where created for reasons beyond human understanding for events which have, will or might happen. As if these left overs where not bad enough. Creation also contains things that once made could not be un-made and things which created themselves and could not or where not removed or destroyed by the absent minded Makers. =Creation's Basics= The edges and nature of Creation are defined by the interactions of the Five Elemental Poles. Creations land masses are divided into five elemental directions, Earth in the center, Air to the North, Water to the West, Fire to the South, and Wood to the East. Creation is not a planet nor does it take the shape of a globe. Acutally the easiest way to visualize the shape of Creation is to imagine a snow globe like the one pictured here. (A snow globe pic on my site. I am so ashamed.) The brown base of the gloabe is the miles of rock which make up the base of Creation. The inner surface with the cute little trees is the surface of Creation on which the majority of its peoples live. The inside space of the globe is the skys of Creation and extends up to the Dome of Heaven. The Dome of Heaven is the glass shell of the snow globe, on which the stars are fixed. Now imaging that we wrapped the snow globe in three layers of tissue paper. The tissue paper represents the Wyld an area on the boarders of Creation that shares aspects of static Creation and the ever changing Pure Chaos surrounding it. I specified three layers of tissue to represent the three layers of the Wyld, the Bordermarches, the Middlemarches, and the Deep Wyld. Everything outside of the tissue paper wrapping is Pure Chaos and it not a nice place to visit. Practical Considerations The strange nature of Creation geography raises a couple of problem's which I will just go a head and address. #'Natural Laws:'First and foremost the natural laws of Creation function as the do for one simple reason, the Makers wanted them to. For the most part the functioning of natural law's produce the same results in Creation as they would in the real world. Gravity pulls down, the sun provides light, heat and ultimatly life to Creationm, the seasons turn, there is an atmosphere. On the other hand the reasons they perform as they do are vastly different and are much more subject to change than in this in reality. For some reason it's these kinds of things that many player's have a hard time suspending dis-belief, but please just go with it. #'The Edges of Creation:' Yes Creation is flat, it has a top and a bottom. The mixed nature of the Wyld is an artifical situation (read below) resulting from Solar created lands being partially reabsorbed into Pure Chaos to form Impure Chaos areas. As such, the Wyld only surrounds the surface areas and lower sky rim of Creation. If you keep walking outwards on the surface or flying in the lower atmosphere of Creation you will eventually enter the Wyld and if your stupid enought to keep going the Pure Chaos. (And then you die.) Up and down are a different matter and are covered below. #'Surface:' The surface lands of Creation are very similar to the surface of Earth. There are rivers, lakes, streams, mountains, hills, forests and everything else one expects. While Creation is acutally flat it function in most ways as if it where a normal planet. It has a horizion, projectile fall in a parabolic arch, etc. #'Under Earth:' On land the surface is covered with a thin layer of top soil below that is a thicker layer of normal dirt and/or normal rock, below which is miles of tunnel filled stone known as the Under Earth. Dig deep enough and you will eventually exit into Pure Chaos. The Under Earth is neither safe nor pleasent, it contains all of the normal hazards of encountered by deep miners and cave explorers, such as vast caverns and crevasses, posion gases, magma, scalding hot air and water, sub-artic tempatures, toxic substances, etc. ##'Volcaneos and Lava': Lacking as it does a molten core of high density stone constantly churned by gravitational forces. The depths of Creaion should not be filled with molten rock with tempatures in the 2000+ range, but it does. Magma reaches the surface of Creation at multiple points and forms volcano's, most of which are near the Elemetnal Pole of Fire in the south. ##'Caves': What fantasy land would be complete with out a massive cave system filled with monsters and strange civilizations? Creation is a card carrying fantasy world and has the standard "Underdark" type area. But instead of bitchy S&M elves, mentally gifted brain eating squids, and noble but mis-understood stone loving vertically challenged people. Its filled with the Makers failed and rejected creations, slimmy tenicalled bearing leech gods, and the noble but mis-understood stone loving people known as the Jade Born. ##'Underground River's': There are a number of rivers running under the surface of Creations. Where they come from and go are subject to much debate. ##'Menoths Fury (Oil)': A strange black tarry liquid bubbles up from the depths in several places in Creation. This substance is known as Menoths Fury and is similar to Oil. Its origins are unknown as Creation lacks the large amounts of compressed biological matter that gives rise to oil on Earth. ##'Hole to China': It is generally assumed that if one where to dig deep enough into Creation you would eventually reach the bottom and exit out into Pure Chaos. Just as would be the case if you traveled to any other edge. One one has ever done so as you start running into bad nastys very quickly. #'Dome of Heaven': The Sun dominates the day time sky. The Moon shares the night sky with a massive number of star's, the other planets, and a variety of balls of ice, mud and rock. The Dome of Heaven is a magical area that functions as the upper shell of Creation's reality. It is possible to use magic to actually reach and walk upon the surface of the Dome, it't even possible for magic to open a door in the substance of the Dome. Doing so is highly not recommened as it would lead directly into the deepest reaches of Pure Chaos. Inversely it is impossible to fly to any of the planets, moons, sun, star's or other heavenly bodies, it might be possible to use magic to reach them. Doing so is also hihgly not recommened as they represent the physical bodies of the Incarnea, the most powerful of all Gods, who are likely to take offense. ##'Astrology': The future of Creation is laid out amount the star's for those with the skill to see it. ##'Meteorites': Some times large objects fall from the Dome of Heaven in a blaze of fire before smashing into the dirt. The nature of these objects is highly contested. Some hold they are balls of rock and metal pulled donw by the gravity of Creation, others that they are omens marking epic events, or they mark the exile of a Celestrial God to Creation, and still other's believe they are the actual bodies of parishing Gods fallen to earth. Hell all of them could be true. #'The Seasons': Creation experiences the change of season's in a fashion similar to Earth's North American, specifically the widewestern area around the Great Lakes. (Which is where I live for simplisity.) All of Creations land experience the same season at the same time. When it's winter in the West it's also winter on the Blessed Isle and all of the other directions. While the basic season is the same in every direction, the influence of the nearest Elemental Pole has a large impact on the actually climate and weather. Winter in the forzen north near the Pole of Air is much worse than winter along the souther coast of the inner sea, where the affects of the Poles of Earth and Fire interact. ##'Spring': Spring is a time of growing warmth, returning life and frequent rains. In the West spring is the season of hurricans and thunder storms. ##'Summmer': Summer is the dryer and warmer growing season accross the face of Creation. Summer in the South brings blistering heat and sand and dust storms miles wide. The far South experience several weeks of constant daylight during the high of summer. It does not experinece constant night. That occures in the North. ##'Fall': Tempatures fall and rain is again common. Fall is the time of harvest and is filled with labor in the fertil lands of the East near the Pole of Wood. ##'Winter': Winter is cold and it frequently snows. In the North winter is called the Dying Season, as tempatures drop well below zero for weeks at a time and darkness reigns. Dispite the fact that Creation is flat the north still experiences several weeks of constant darkeness during the winter. It does not experience constant daylight in the summer how ever. ##'Calebration': Calebration is a period of five days between Fall and Winter, it is a time of ill omen. The five days of Calebration are the only time during which the most powerful of Demons maybe called to Creation. (Third Circle Demon) Astrology does not functions during Calebration as the whole of Creation moves outside of Fate. =The Five Elemental Poles= Pole of Earth The Elemental Pole of Earth is the foundation on which Creation is built. It creates and sustains the static nature which divides the defined and limited realtiy of Creation from the endless and endlessly changing stuff of Pure Chaos. The Pole of Earth was the first aspect of Creation to be formed and is believed to have remained unchanged from the very first version. The Pole of Earth is located at the very center of the Blessed Isle and Creation in the form of the miles tall Imperial Mountain. The influence of the pole gives the Blessed Isle its great fertility, massive Jade deposites, predictable and mild weather and almost non-existanct Wyld Zones. (More on those later.) Over all the Blessed Isle is the nicest place in which to be born in all of Creation. The Isle has the largest, safest, and wealthest population of any direction. Pole of Air The Elemental Pole of Air defines the northern boarder of Creation and has the physical form of an endless wall of ice, sweep by constant gale force winds. The Pole of Air embodies the elemental concepts of Air, Wind, Ice, Cold, Electrisity and Change. Its influcence makes the northern reaches of Creations cold as hell, subject to unperdicatble and sever storm's and inately hostle to Mortals. All in all its a fairly shitty place to live, populated by tribes of harsh savages with limited wealth and technology. What they do have in spades is a preferrence for and skill at violence. The frozen wastes of the far north supports only a few small permenant settlements and a much larger number of nomadic groups. The more hospitable northeast is home to the militaristic Empire of Khrondor (its really more of a kingdom with an Imperial inferiority complex) and the Halastic Trade League. Pole of Water The Elemental Pole of Water defines the western edge of Creation and its form is an endless expansion of water that eventually bleeds back into Pure Chaos. The West is the least stable direction of Creation due to its low and widely spreed population and there is alwasy danger of the tide of Chaos sweeping in to change and/or unmake reality. The Pole of Water is the embodyment of water, the Sea and is the source of the life giving rains which fall on the rest of Creation. The West is mostly salt water with a few larger islands and a shit load of smaller ones. The population of the West is divided into those who live above the water and those who live below. Surface life clings to the islands and is generally hard, poor and smells like fish. The sea is both the greatest source of wealth and the most common source of danger. For much life stirs in the depths, the majority of which is hostle to Mortal life. The things that live in the deepest trenches are best not considered closely. Pole of Fire The Elemental Pole of Fire defines the southern edge of Creation and takes the form of an massive firestorm which consumers all that enter it. The lands closes to the Pole are blasted wastelands swept by raging firestorms, more closely resembling the surface of Mercury than Earths and are unable to support any "normal" lifeforms, including unprotected Mortals. As one travels north away from the Pole, the wastelands give way to deserts and eventually dry savanas along the rim of the Inner Sea. The centeral desert is boarded by exensive mountain ranges to the east and west. The western range gives way to exensive rain forests on the edge of the western sea. The eastern moutains are faced by vary different climates on the northern and sothern ends. The north is dense jungle as the influence of the Pole of Fire mixes with that of the Pole of Wood. Little is known of the southern edge as it is home to a remanant race known as the Skorne. The Pole of Fire also embodies metals, gems and other minerals. The souths best known product is the substance known as firedust a magical powder capable of bursting into flame. The Pole of Wood The Pole of Wood is the eastern edge of Creation. The further east one travels the thicker and larger the trees and other plants become until further progress becomes impossible. The Pole of Wood is embodies life in all its forms from viruses to plants and animals. (Including many lifeforms filled under "other"). The eastern lands near the Inner Sea are the bread basket of Creation and supply much of the food that feeds the populations of the other direcetions. These lands where once called The River Provience due to the many rivers that allowed easy trade and travel. During the First Age the River Provience was the second wealthest place in Creation even supassing some areas of the Blessed Isle and was dotted with many large and medium sized cities with the highest population density in all of Creation. Heavely damaged during the battles of the Conflagulation and devistated by the Great Contatigion the River Provience is now know as the Scavanger Lands due to the large number of ruins. (The Scavanger Lands is the starting location for the game.) =Pure Chaos and the Creation of the Wyld= Originally Creation proper was surrounded on all sides by the raw potential of Pure Chaos. During the High First Age the Solar Exalted used their power to extend the boundries of Creation, forming and solitifying new lands from Pure Chaos. Initially these newly formed lands where unstable and required the re-enforcement of Solar Artifacts and the directed belief of the human population harnessed by Solar power. Fighting during the Conflagualtion damaged many of the Artifacts the Solars had made to hold back the tide of Chaos and stabilize the land. The Terresetrail Exalted where unable to repair and in some case even maintain the Solar created Artifacts during the Second Age and the stability of the land detererated further with the failure of every Artifact. The death of the majority of the Mortal population caused by the Great Contagion drastically reduced the force of Mortal belief and sent the outer most walls of Creation crashing down. Seeing a chance to finally destroy the hated static reality of Creation the armies of the Fae poured thru the breaches into the heart of Creation. The powerful Unformed leading the Fair Folk advacne unmade large portions of Creation as they passed thru them and destroyed serveral outer rings of First Age reality stabilizing Artifacts called Jade Phylons. The destruction of the Jade Plyons allowed the tide of Chaos to sweep true large portions of Creation twisting and changing everything it touched. The First Age defenses activated by the Scarlet Empress to destory and drive out the armies of the Fair Folk, had been created during the High First Age to protect and stablize the whole of Creation as it existed at the time. The Realm Defense Grid was created shortly after the end of the Great War to protect Creation from the effects of a hypothetical Primordial Level Threat. In the event a suprise attack by a Primordial level threat that succeeded in destorying the Elemental Pole of Earth, which is the source of Creation stability and the most likely target for being from outside Creation. The Realm Defense Grid was to be able to support and maintain the stability and struture of Creations reality long enough for the Solars to amass their forces, drive off or destroy the attacker and then fix the problem. This was long before the Solars decided to extend the boarders of Creation simply because they could. The network of reality extending Jade Phylons was an after market add-on intended to extend and expand on the reality stabilizing engines of the Grid. When the Empress activated the Realm Defense Grid it worked remarkably well condidering the 5000 or so years of Solar tinkering followed by massive war damage and 2000 years of Dragon Blooded destruction and negelect. Luckly for Creation the attacking Fair Folk where no where near the power of a Primordial. The majority of them died in the intial attacks by the automated Essence weaponry of the Grid. Most of the remainder where pushed out of Creation as the Reality Engines extended a reality stabilization field outward from the Blessed Isle. This field interacted with the network of Jade Plyons to produce several unexpected affects. #As the field expanded some of the attacking Fair Folk became trapped within the soldifying fabric of reality and were unable to return to the mutable realtiy of the Pure Chaos. Some eventually manage to escape, others adapt, some remain hopelessly trapped. #The alterations made to the Grid to incorporate the Jade Plyons combined with areas of extensive damage resulted in weak spots within the fabric of Creation that where not repaired when the Grid activated. These isolated pockets of Chaos energy can still befound across the face of Creation. Some are as small as closet other span for miles. Most are difficult if not impossible to detect before entering their area of effect. #Due to extensive damange the network of Jade Phlyons did not function at a constant level in all areas and was unable to full drive out the tide of Chaos Energy. The result is a ring of lands around the boarders of Creation known as the Wyld which share aspects of Creation's stability and Chaos's mutability. The Wyld is divided into several layers caused by the more extensive damage to the other portions of the network. =The Wyld= The Wyld is basically a constantly changing part of Creation. The "deeper" meaning towards Pure Chaos the worse it gets. The inner most edge of the Wyld is the Boardermarches in which changes are slow, mild, often physical and conform to the limited possiblities of Creation. Travel into the deeper Middlemarches and things start getting strange as changes become faster, wider spread, and begain to affect non-physical aspects of reality such as gravity, color, smell, and extend beyond anything possible as defined by the reality of Creation. In the furthest depths of the Deep Wyld all bets are off. The entire landscape changes in minute and smaller aspects in the blink of an eye. The entire enviroment is capable of taking forms impossible with in Creation. Nothing is beyond the reach of Chaos, as even concepts such as love, the color red, the flow and nature of time, and the difference between life and death alter as readly as what's behind door number one. Category:UE Category:UE Setting